Printing devices, such as printers for use with computers, facsimile machines and copiers, are typically sold with at least one, and in many cases, multiple ink cartridges. These cartridges include a housing that contains a reservoir of printing ink, either black or color, along with printer nozzles, which allow the ink to be transmitted to the intended medium, and electrical contacts for communicating with the cartridge.
Many such cartridges are intended to be disposable; when the cartridge is exhausted of ink, of course, printing becomes impossible. The emptied cartridge must be removed and a replacement cartridge must be substituted therefor to enable further printing. The disposable cartridge must then be disposed of in a proper fashion to reduce spillage of any remaining ink and to reduce any potential adverse environmental impact of the ink and other materials of the cartridge. Unless properly recycled, disposing of the empty cartridge increases the amount of garbage added to landfills.
In reaction to the negative environmental impact of disposable cartridges, refillable cartridges have been developed and welcomed by the marketplace. At present, these refillable cartridges are refillable by the consumer by purchasing a refill kit including a syringe filled with ink and needle. In use, the cartridge is refilled by insertion of the needle into a refill port provided through the housing of the cartridge and emptying the syringe of ink into the reservoir of the cartridge. In practice, this is a less than ideal solution.
Often, the refilling of a refillable cartridge is accompanied by some spillage of ink. The process can therefore be messy as well as time-consuming. Furthermore, the introduction of ink by way of the syringe and needle also tends to introduce unwanted pressure into the cartridge, which causes ink to be expelled through the inkjet printing head portion of the cartridge. In some cases, combining the remaining ink with the new ink may cause unwanted color variations and other inconsistencies. After refilling, many so-called refillable cartridges are rendered unusable.
Many cartridge manufacturers allow customers to return their empty cartridges to the manufacturer. The manufacturer then refills the cartridge and resells the refilled cartridge for a discounted price. Further, many companies obtain empty cartridges, refill them with ink and sell the refilled cartridges for a discounted price, creating competition and lower prices. However, refilling an empty cartridge is the least expensive alternative, with the least amount of waste.
There are numerous printer manufacturers, such as Hewlett Packard, Lexmark, Canon, etc., and each manufactures multiple cartridges for the many printing devices. Each cartridge has a housing that contains a number of electrical contacts and print nozzles in various configurations, and is designed or configured such that it may only fit into a particular printing device and no other.
In use, the cartridges are properly inserted into a printing device which receives a signal in order to print on the medium. For example, a printer connected to a computer may receive a print signal from the computer, while a facsimile machine may receive a signal over a telephone line. The printing device converts that signal, depending on its driver program, and sends the appropriate control signal to the cartridge, or in the case of a color printing device, to multiple cartridges. Once the control signal is received, each cartridge will transfer ink through its print nozzles as the medium passes beneath. When the control signal is complete, the printing device will have generated a document or drawing on the medium.
Each use of the cartridge reduces the amount of toner or ink remaining in the cartridge. Depending on the size of the cartridge, a number of documents or drawings can be generated before the cartridge is empty or near empty. The larger the cartridge, the more ink it contains and the more documents can be printed. When empty, the cartridge needs to be replaced.
Cartridges can be expensive depending on many different variables, including the overall need for a particular cartridge, the popularity of the printing device (the more cartridges manufactured the less expensive the cartridge due to economies of scale), and the amount of competition for the cartridge manufacturer, among others.
Further, the cost of the ink or toner in a cartridge is relatively inexpensive and has very little effect on the cost of the replacement cartridge itself. Thus, as many printing device owners understand, merely replacing the ink or toner in a cartridge can be an extremely inexpensive alternative to replacing the entire cartridge.
A demand therefore exists for an automatic mechanism and method in which the customer can refill a printer cartridge that reduces or eliminates ink spillage, does not destroy the cartridge and is convenient and reliable. The present invention satisfies this demand.